India: Bishop Who Initiated Mother Teresa’s Canonization Dies

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Retired Archbishop Henry Sebastian D’Souza of Calcutta who initiated the process for the canonization of Blessed Mother Teresa has passed away aged 90.

Archbishop D’Souza headed Calcutta Archdiocese from 1986-2002, where he was a close associate of Blessed Teresa who had her headquarters for the Missionaries of Charity congregation that she founded in Calcutta, now named Kolkata, eastern India.

Blessed Teresa died of cardiac arrest in Kolkata on Sept. 5, 1997. Her canonization process, initiated by Archbishop D’Souza, began two years afterward.

In 2005, retired Archbishop D’Souza said Blessed Teresa “fell in love with God and in that love she spent her whole life.”

According to the archbishop, Blessed Teresa’s initial letters from India to her relatives back home spoke of her difficulties in adjusting to the heat and conditions in this country.

Archbishop D’Souza was born Jan. 20, 1926 and in 1985 became Coadjutor Archbishop of Calcutta before heading the archdiocese the next year. Before that he was Bishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, India, ordained bishop in 1974 at the age of 48.

Blessed Teresa will be canonized a saint by Pope Francis in September.

UCA News

The Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News, UCAN) is the leading independent Catholic news source in Asia. A network of journalists and editors that spans East, South and Southeast Asia, UCA News has for four decades aimed to provide the most accurate and up-to-date news, feature, commentary and analysis, and multimedia content on social, political and religious developments that relate or are of interest to the Catholic Church in Asia.

One thought on “India: Bishop Who Initiated Mother Teresa’s Canonization Dies

  • June 30, 2016 at 12:55 pm
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    RIP BISHOP. AND YOU BE ALSO BE RECOGNISED LIKE MOTHER TERESA THROUGH HER INTERCESSION THAT YOU MAY BECOME A SAINT. PRAR FOR US AND THE WHOLE WORLD.

    Reply

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